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Turbo’s barks were louder now. He slammed into the door and it echoed around them. The girl on the ground opened her eyes and smiled up at Cathy. She was
wolf,
too. She wiped the blood from her nose and began to stand.

Cathy took a step back into her house. “You’re not injured ... What do you want?”

The girl’s smile turned to a grin. “We hear you have a baby in the house that needs adopting.” Cathy narrowed her eyes at the girl. “We’ve come to take him.”

Chapter Eight

Never before had Jeff been more thankful for the speed dial function on their phone and never before had he been glad that they had been proactive with their thoughts because they had programmed Malcolm’s number in right away. He punched one into the phone and listened, one ear to the phone as it rang out, and the other to what was going on outside the house. It was hard to hear with Turbo barking the way he was.

Malcolm answered almost right away. “Come fast,” Jeff whispered quickly. “Someone is here.” He didn’t wait to say more, just replaced the receiver. What did it matter, though? Come fast was surely enough to let Malcolm know that there was something going down. He would come to the clinic. He wasn’t a stupid man.

Jeff pulled his jacket on. It wasn’t cold or even warm outside, but that wasn’t why he was using it. It fastened all the way and the waistband on it was tight. It was made that way for bikers, so that he could ride without the worry of it rising up and causing him a hindrance. Tonight it might just be a lifesaver. He picked the baby up, still wrapped in the shawl that Cathy had placed him in. He held him gently, careful not to pass on the anxious vibes that were surging through his own body. He tried to move with speed, but not clumsily, as he lowered Sebastian inside his jacket and into his waistband. Then he zipped the jacket up, leaving it open enough so that the baby could breathe.

His heart tore when he went to the hook by the door and took his bike keys from it. He could hear Cathy and the man outside. But they had sworn that if anyone came, one would go running. He always thought that it would be him to confront the danger, though. He wouldn’t have agreed if he had realised that it would mean leaving Cathy. If anything happened to her … He tried not to think about that. Tried to trust in the power that she had. She was not some meek, unable female. She was Cathy, strong,
tiger.

Turbo was still barking, determined to get out of the kitchen. Jeff crept in there, using the door at the back. He kept himself low so as not to startle the dog. Turbo had gouged rivets into the wooden door with his claws in his desperation to go out and help Cathy. Jeff leaned over him and reached for the handle, pushing it slowly. When the catch clicked, Turbo pushed at the door, teeth bared, lips back. The door swung open and he charged. Jeff stepped back and went to the back door, sending up a silent prayer for help—help for Cathy mostly.

His bike
was at the back, a Harley—a gift to themselves. It was something they had saved for and built together, much like their life. It was symbolic and built with love and care. They had spent many nights together customising it and talking about where they would go. Dreams of riding far out and laying together under the stars. Just them and no worries. Tonight it was him and Sebastian. The stars were out, bright in the night sky. The sky was clear of clouds, leaving a crisp stillness to the night air. Jeff mounted the bike, kicked off the stand and started the engine. He twisted the throttle, and the bike roared to life, the sound of the engine echoing around him. He’d be gone by the time whoever it was got around the back, but maybe it would act as a good enough distraction, even for a moment, so that Cathy could get away and meet him.

He peeled away from the house and his home, heading into the woodlands that led to the hills. He would go over the tallest one; that was their plan. There was a church near one of the lakes. It was derelict and abandoned now. Not even safe to go in, but it was special to them. They had snuck in years before and said their vows.

There were
Humans
—everywhere. Like a gathering of a cult on some dark night. They stepped out of the shadows of the trees, a wall of fetid people. Jeff hesitated, his hand twisting and his mind telling him to turn around, but there was nowhere to go. As he came to a stop, he realised that they were everywhere. There were
Others
there, too.
Others
who had sold themselves to the other side—traitors to their people. It was all about money and power to them and the façade that
Humans
granted them rights. Jeff stared at them with a look of disdain. They were worse than the
Humans
. They were a disgrace.

One of the
Humans
stepped forward. He was dressed differently, held himself differently, too. “Give me the child.” His accent was thick, broad, from one of the islands.

Jeff stayed on the bike, his hands ready to rev the engine to life. “What child?”

“The one that you are hiding.”

Jeff tilted his head to one side. One of the
Humans
was taking a chance to come up the side, but Jeff heard it, his hearing more exceptional than theirs could ever be. He shook his head at him and then turned back to the main
Human
. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

The man sighed. “The baby.” He looked at Jeff with that kind of expression that said he was tired, not tired as in weary, but tired as in this was beneath him and he was already sick of it. But none of that impressed Jeff. The
Human
could look any way he wanted and he would still not get his hands on Sebastian.

“I have no idea what you mean. There is no baby or child.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“No, and I don’t really care, either.”

“My name is Marshall. I work for Norton.”

Oh, Jeff knew that name alright. Norton—god damn fucking Norton. “So you’re an asshole who is with that company that makes the silver bullets.”

Marshall laughed. “Well done.” He smiled, seemingly amused by him. “And I am here on behalf of Norton to come and claim the baby.”

“Watch my lips. There is no baby.”

Marshall nodded to one of the
Humans
beside him, who then began to advance. Even from where he sat on his bike, Jeff could see that the
Human
was terrified. He could see the sweat beading on his brow. Jeff could smell the fear almost—it was thick and acrid in the air. Jeff twisted the throttle again and kicked the bike into gear, pushing off with his foot. He headed straight for the
Human
, head down, hand twisting, engine blazing. He ground his teeth, ready if the
Human
was that much of an idiot he wouldn’t move, because Jeff wasn’t relenting. The man did move; at the last minute, he threw himself to the ground and rolled out of the way. Jeff felt the warmth of the air as he rode past him and into the darkness. He didn’t look back. He kept the throttle twisted and rode the bike into Barnham Woods. He rode over fallen branches, over nature’s debris. It didn’t matter.

The land had an incline. He rode up it, pushing all the way for the bike to take him and the infant to safety. He could hear a ruckus behind him.

The
Humans
and the
Others
were coming.

They would not get this baby.

Malcolm answered the phone immediately when it rang. Somehow he knew that it would be Cathy or Jeff. He felt it inside. When Jeff’s hushed voice came on the line, Malcolm’s head was already way ahead of him. He was late going back to them. Late because he hadn't yet found Sebastian somewhere secure to go. He raced out of the house and to his car. Time was of the essence here. He would already be behind with just having to drive to the clinic. He turned the ignition, put his foot down and sped off.

Almost twenty miles of the most infuriating country lanes, and forty minutes later, he pulled his car up outside the clinic. The lights were on in there, but he couldn’t see anyone. The place was quiet—too quiet. He marched to the door, its hydraulic mechanism giving way under Malcolm’s strength as he forced the doors open. The stench of death and blood rushed out to greet him. Its coppery scent filled his nostrils. He stepped inside. It was silent in there too. No patients, no staff. He walked in, pushing the door to the first examining room open. There was a man on the bed—dead. His throat was torn out. The mark of claws. His unfocused eyes stared up at the ceiling. On the floor next to him was another man, younger. He wore a white jacket and gloves, one of the staff. His throat was the same. Blood pooled on the tiled floor beneath him. Malcolm bent down and dipped his fingertips in. Warm. It was still warm.

He breathed in deeply and called to his
tiger,
not to shift, but to be ready. His
tiger
came like he always did. Willing and waiting, he sat on the sidelines for when he was needed. Malcolm’s eyes shifted and he readied himself to bring his
tiger
out.

The next room, just the same. A girl this time, but dead nonetheless. Wounds decorated her arm—she had tried to fight maybe. In the next room, another body, another member of staff. On a break, it would seem. A newspaper lay strewn across the floor. It was as if they had been attacked by a pack of wolves.

At the back was a private room—an office. Maybe it was where Cathy and Jeff did all the paperwork. It held a small table, a chair and a microwave. It met all the requirements for someone who needed to live at work. The sound of shuffling caught his attention, and Malcolm stood perfectly still, listening. He honed in on it. It was coming from what seemed to be a utility cupboard. He strode over and yanked the door open.

Inside, a young woman put her arms up. She was bleeding. “Please, don’t hurt me.” She was shaking and crying.

“Where are Cathy and Jeff?”

The girl cried harder and brought her hands to her face. She let out deep sobs that wracked her entire body. Malcolm leaned down to her and pulled her hands away from her face.

“What happened here? Where are the Knuths?”

“I don’t know,” she cried.

“I don’t have time for this. You work for them. Where are they?”

The girl just cried harder, and Malcolm let himself breathe for a moment, swallowing down the anger that threatened to bubble out and made him want to shake the girl for answers, but that would get neither of them anywhere.

“I didn’t mean to get them in trouble,” the girl wailed. “Please don’t leave me here. It’s all my fault.”

“What is your fault?”

The girl slowly got to her feet. Her wounds were mostly superficial, but she moved with a limp. She heaved in a breath, her face red, mostly from crying. “I told him about the baby. I didn’t mean to. I’d just … I’d never seen a mix baby before.”

“Who?

She wiped her face. “My boyfriend. He came here with Norton’s men. I didn’t know he would …”

Malcolm didn’t let her finish.

Norton’s men.

Shit
.

Norton was the company who crafted the liquid silver. They were the ones who made weapons that stopped
Others
. What they wanted a mix-breed baby for, Malcolm had no idea, but whatever it was, it would not be good.

Chapter Nine

Cathy stood at the clearing at the centre of the woodland, holding her paw off the ground. It throbbed in time to the beating of her heart and she was certain that it was broken. The coppery taste remained in her mouth where she had bitten the man, bits of flesh stuck in her teeth irritating her. He might have busted her arm, but she sure as hell took one chunk out of his leg. She wanted to rest her paw down on the ground, but even the slightest touch had her growling and wincing with it, causing pain to lance through her and into her shoulder like lightning.

The young man in front of her clutched at his leg. Blood soaked through his jeans and his not-so-injured girlfriend stood next to him. “Where did your husband go?”

That was what they wanted to know. They wanted her to show them, but she would not. They’d raced after his bike, raced around the back, but he was gone and they chased him. It had given Cathy the chance to shift and go after them, but the man had kicked her and twisted her paw until she felt the bone inside snapping. Now she stood with them again, only this time two
Humans
stood either side of her. Another man stood behind the young one. He came up last. He was different to the rest, wearing a suit and well spoken. In his hand was a gun, one of the guns with the silver in.

“There are plenty of places you know that I can shoot you and it won’t be fatal.” He pulled two glass tubes from his top pocket and pushed them into the barrel of the gun. He signalled one of the Humans at the side, a young man, and he obeyed without hesitation, moving towards Cathy. She could see him in her peripheral vision, but refused to turn her head and give him the satisfaction of thinking she feared him. He had a gun too, though. Her heart thumped when she heard the click and felt the cold metal press against her fur and skin. The silver was like the warmth of a fire beside her, an inch closer and it would burn. “You need to shift and then you need to take us to the baby. I won’t ask again.”

One of the
Humans
threw some clothes down in front of her. She snarled at him and then took her sights slowly around to the suited
Human
.

“I will tell you one more time. Shift now so that we may speak or you are of no use to us and we will find your husband and that baby ourselves.” He leaned down to her, grinning all the while. “Don’t think that we won’t.”

Oh, Cathy knew that he thought they’d find Jeff and the baby—he believed it. It was in his eyes, a deep assurance of himself that he could do anything. She turned to the Human with the gun pressed against her and growled. She didn’t snarl, though, didn’t raise her lip too much, just enough to say
back off
. The
Human
got the message and she put her head down, careful to keep her paw from going down, too. Closing her eyes, she tried to call into herself, but it was near impossible. Her
tiger
was not willing to go away. There was danger around. Cathy forced her, told her that she needed to go. She needed to go so that Cathy could speak. The
tiger
had no time for talking, though. She wanted to fight and to protect. Cathy wished that she could. She hoped that Jeff was at the church. She was glad it was him who had to run. She wasn’t sure the other way around she would have been able to go through with leaving him.

Cathy pushed down in herself and the
tiger
began to listen. She retreated with protest.
Please,
Cathy begged inside her mind.
Please.
She needed her to leave.

The shift was slow and painful. Everything in it was forced and clunky. Even as her bones moved under her flesh, the pressure from the reluctance of the shift made her joints ache. When it was complete, she let herself sit for a moment on her knees, breathless from the effort and her
tiger
still trying its best to come back and face the threat that was there. She cradled her broken arm to her naked chest, not for privacy, but because the pain in it now, having shifted back to a woman, was far worse than it was before. But she would not let him see that he had caused her immense agony.

“Dress,” the suited
Human
commanded.

Cathy shot him a glance, defiant to the tears that pricked the back of her eyes. The tears weren’t for him or even for fear. They were for Jeff and the baby and this whole damn thing. They were the outlet for the anger that was welling deep inside. She pulled the blouse on, trying to avoid catching her arm. The top was shredded and bloody, but it was better than nothing. She pulled on the slacks they had brought too. One of them must have picked up the clothes she had removed when she shifted. She stood when she had dressed.

The man stood with the gun by his side. He was too polite it would seem to aim it right at her. Funny that his manners didn’t go all the way deep inside. “Now. The baby?”

“What baby?”

The
Human
came closer. He smelt like expensive aftershave and greed. He smacked her across the face with the back of his hand. She let her head snap to the side with the force, but he was just
Human
. Didn’t he realise that all it would take from her would be one slash? “Where is the baby?”

“I don’t know what you're talking about.” She stared him directly in the eyes as she spoke.

The
Human
sighed. “You see this young man right here.” He pointed to the
wolf
who had knocked at her door. He had bound his leg with cloth from his shirt. Now he stood next to the
Human
. He was nothing but a traitor, not just to the baby, but to his own kind. He worked for the
Humans
, probably thought that it earnt him a fortune as well as a place worthy in this world, but he was nothing. “See the girl next to him?”

Cathy nodded. The girl they had pretended was injured.

“She’s actually his sister. You see …” He smiled. “His actual girlfriend, and this is the funny part, she works for you. Pretty little thing, not too bright. Walks with a limp? Maybe you know her?”

Cathy fought with her gaze—fought to let her emotions spread out across her face so that the
Human
wouldn’t see that he had hit the nail right on centre. She clenched herself, keeping her muscles tight, but the Human could tell. He laughed.

“Always the nice ones, isn’t it? The quiet ones that fuck us right over.”

“She is just a nurse. She doesn’t know what she is talking about.”

“Yes, she is, isn’t she? Well, it seems your Tammy had quite a story.” He leaned forward to hook the tip of the gun under Cathy’s chin. “Oh, don’t look so startled, she didn’t betray you. No … the stupid girl thought it would be great pillow talk with our friend Benson right here. You know how it goes? Little kiss, little cuddle, boy tells girl he loves her, girl opens her legs, and then after, when she has given over intimately, she lies there and yaps and yaps on. Normally we aren’t interested in that kind of moment, but see now, this one was different. So I know you have a baby here and I know that he is special.”

“He is just
wolf.
”

“Yes. That’s what you told the silly girl, isn’t it? But his eyes. She described them and you know, I've done enough research on your kind to know what that means. You’ve got yourself a diamond there. He’s the fucking jewel of your kind. He’s a mix-breed. Do you know how rare that is? How much he is worth?”

Cathy swallowed. She could be sick. “You would sell the child?”

He shook his head. “Oh no, no, no. You misunderstand me. It is a fool who let’s go of such a valuable thing. Do you know what he could teach us? The bloods of
Others
don’t mix, but something in his has, and he has made it this far. They’re like half-breeds, they don’t normally make it past a few days of their creation. Usually mix-breeds die in the womb, but this one didn’t. Which tells me there is something unusual about this child.”

Science. That was what they wanted him for? To study him? To keep him like a lab rat so that they could study him. That was worse than just selling him. What
Others
suffered in the name of
Human
science. It was disgusting.

A branch cracked behind the
Human
, somewhere in the shadows cast down from the trees. They all turned to see Malcolm emerge. Cathy was relieved to see him. More relieved than she even dared to admit. The
Human
backed up from Cathy and moved to the newcomer. “Can I help you? Are you lost?”

“I have come for my friend here,” he said, pointing to Cathy.

The
Human
smiled. “Cathy is busy.”

Malcolm didn’t falter, didn’t step back. He showed no moment of backing down from the
Human
, but the
Human
did raise his gun this time and aimed it at Malcolm. “Do you know who I am?”

The
Human
gave a slow nod. “Yes. That is why I know that you have no business here. I suggest you do the smart thing and leave. Whatever business you have with your friend Cathy here, can wait until tomorrow. Assuming she does as she is told, or I can't promise she’ll make it.”

The deep, feral roar that came from behind them made them all turn again as the sound of paws pounding against the hard earth echoed around them. A flash of gold and orange fur leapt from the shadows and landed against the
Human
who had held the gun to Cathy’s side. A
tiger.
It was magnificent in all its glory, but not as big as a real tiger. No, this was a shifter, and it sank his teeth down into the
Human’s
hand and ripped the flesh away, knocking the gun to the ground. The man screamed, the sound loud and guttural as the bone was exposed where it had once been covered with flesh. He was silenced when the
tiger
leapt at him and slashed a paw through his throat, sending blood and skin everywhere as the
Human
fell down in a lifeless lump. One of the other
Humans
had picked up the gun and he aimed it at the
tiger.
The
tiger
spun on himself and then rose up on his hind legs. He was so tall. His big paws came down against the
Human’s
shoulders. Together, the
Human
and the
tiger
rolled. Snarls and growls and screams mingled together in a loud blur of noise, and then, just as fast, it was silent and the
Human
was dead, his throat torn away. 

The young man, Benson, lifted a bat and swung it at the
tiger
, catching it in the side and knocking it down with an almighty whack. The
tiger
rolled and he went for the second blow, but the
tiger
spun and regained itself, slashing out and sending the bat bouncing across the earth and away from them. The man ripped off his shirt, his shift beginning. He unsheathed thick, dark claws and howled as his teeth began to emerge from his shifting jaws. The
tiger
raced towards him and the man almost welcomed him with open arms as the two met in the middle with a smash and then tumbled to the ground. The
tiger
was unyielding as they fought, howls and growls echoing all around as the two slashed at each other. The magnificent
tiger
wrapped his paws around the man and held him tightly. The man screamed and bucked to free himself, and as he got loose, he twisted wrongly and the
tiger
came down on him with jaws wide open. The sound of lightning cracking through the air ricocheted through the trees, sending night animals scampering for cover. The man clutched at himself, his screams giving way to gurgling as silvery lines spread under his skin, a network of poisoned veins. He clutched at his abdomen. Cathy stood with one of the guns in her outstretched hand. She stood almost frozen, the only movement in her body was as she panted, watching the young man writhe and scream on the ground until he died.

“You fucking shit,” came a cry, as the girl suddenly brought herself mentally around and lunged for Cathy. Cathy raised the gun again, eyes unblinking as she went to squeeze the trigger a second time, but the
tiger
came to her side, his teeth bared, snarling. Blood dripped from his fur—it marred his beautiful face. The girl didn’t stop and the
tiger
leapt for her, slamming his paws down against her chest and, in turn, against the ground. She screamed under the
tiger’s
hold as he pressed his paw down against her throat. The girl pounded at the side of the
tiger’s
neck trying to push him off. She tried to lift her feet between them, but the
tiger
moved.

“Perhaps it would be a good time for you both to go home.” It was Malcolm’s voice that made them turn. He stood behind the suited Human, a clawed hand around the man’s neck. He leaned into him, pressing himself against the Human’s back and peering out at the girl over the man’s shoulder. The
Human
showed no fear as he stared. He was staring right at Cathy, his eyes almost dripping with hatred for her. “You will not get this baby. Not today, or tomorrow. I suggest you take your little pet here and leave while you can.”